Lead Consultant - Susanne Currid

Susanne Currid is a development and curation consultant who is passionate about engaging communities with the untapped potential of photography archives. As lead consultant at The Loop, she brings together 25 years of experience across business development, audience engagement, digital project management and capacity‑building with a recent distinction‑grade MA in Art History and Museum Curation.  At the University of Sussex, Susanne specialised in archive photography curation and inclusive cultural engagement practices.  Her lifelong commercial, voluntary and academic experience is now synthesised into a culturally-sensitive, people-centred and practical approach to unleashing the potential of photography archives.

Her consultancy approach is shaped by a distinctive methodology refined throughout her career. Susanne integrates Design Thinking, Lean project management, and Asset‑Based Community Development (ABCD) to create development roadmaps that are both strategic and highly practical. This blended process prioritises co-creation, Iterative learning, and the resourceful use of existing assets—an approach particularly effective for start‑up and early‑stage archives looking to build momentum, clarity, and sustainable growth.

A passionate community activist, Susanne’s experience in the voluntary sector encompasses business manager, trustee, volunteer and community lead roles. Contributing to arts, environment and mental health programmes, she has played a significant role fundraising, coordinating, training and contributing to strategy development. On voluntary sector fundraising projects, she has raised in excess of £175k for start-up initiatives. Most recently, she has fundraised and supported volunteer and work experience capacity development at Picnic – A Place for Photography, St Leonards-on-Sea, and Towner Gallery, Eastbourne.  With the Friends of Ruskin Park in south London, she served as a trustee, fundraiser and community programme lead.  At Winston’s Wish, the children’s bereavement support charity, she spent a decade supporting young people as part of their therapeutic residential weekend programme. This work included leading creative therapy sessions devised in line with trauma-informed practices.  As a founding member of the Exploding Cinema in the 1990s, she was part of a dynamic collective presenting an exciting and diverse programme of independent video, film and performance art to London audiences.

Susanne is now consulting on the development of a rock music photography archive, which features iconic documentary work spanning the last 55 years.

Working across South East England, Susanne helps archives articulate their cultural value, strengthen their operational foundations, and develop pathways that honour both their heritage and their future potential.